More Than Half Of American Public Schoolchildren Now Live In Poverty: Study

Overall, 51 percent of U.S. schoolchildren came from low-income households in 2013, according to the foundation, which analyzed data from National Center for Education Statistics on students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. Eligibility for free or subsidized lunch for students from low-income households serves as a proxy for gauging poverty, says the foundation, which advocates education equity for students in the South.

The report shows the percentage of schoolchildren from poor households has grown steadily for nearly a quarter-century, from 32 percent in 1989. "By 2006, the national rate was 42 percent and, after the Great Recession, the rate climbed in 2011 to 48 percent," says the report.

Kent McGuire, president of the Southern Education Foundation, told The Washington Post that the analysis shows poverty has reached a "watershed moment."

The analysis shows the highest percentages of poor students in Southern and Western states. Mississippi had the highest rate of low-income students -- 71 percent. New Hampshire had the lowest, at 27 percent.

“No longer can we consider the problems and needs of low income students simply a matter of fairness," the report says. "... Their success or failure in the public schools will determine the entire body of human capital and educational potential that the nation will possess in the future."

More Than Half Of American Public Schoolchildren Now Live In Poverty: Study

Closed Philadelphia Schools

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Spring Garden School No. 1 -- Closed In The Late 1980s

According to Katrina Ohstrom's blog, the<a href="http://ohstromphoto.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/spring-garden-school-no1/" target="_blank"> Spring Garden School No. 1</a> was built in 1928 and closed in the late 1980s. In 2009 it was bought by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, although the future of the building is unclear.